The terms of reference for the HIV tribunal of inquiry will be drawn up next week, it was agreed at a meeting between the Irish Haemophilia Society and the Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, yesterday.
The inquiry into the contamination of blood products with HIV is due to begin early in the new year, according to Ms Rosemary Daly, the IHS administrator.
She said the Minister had agreed that the society should be involved in drawing up the terms of reference for the tribunal and that there was need for a tribunal as soon as possible. She described the meeting as very constructive.
"There was agreement that we would be involved in the drafting of the terms of reference. We see that as being extremely important. Our aim is to find out what exactly went wrong with the blood supply and how it became infected with hepatitis C and HIV," said Ms Daly.
A series of meetings to draw up the terms of reference will begin next Tuesday and Ms Daly expected the task would be concluded by the following week. She said the Minister had been "very open" to the society's views. It withdrew from the hepatitis C tribunal saying it was concentrating on infection of the blood supply through anti-D immunoglobulin and not other areas of infection which involved its members.
The HIV tribunal was announced nine months ago by the former minister for health, Mr Michael Noonan. The IHS wants the circumstances of infection of haemophiliacs with hepatitis C and HIV investigated, particularly the infection of six people who were infected with HIV from factor 9 clotting agent, which had been produced by the Blood Transfusion Service Board in the mid1980s.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Department of Health said yesterday that arrangements were at an "advanced stage" for the HIV optional testing programme.
The Department is working with the BTSB, the Virus Reference Laboratory, health boards and hospitals on the programme, which was announced after it was discovered the BTSB was unable to locate recipients of possibly contaminated blood products. "A public information announcement will be made shortly," he said.